Improved railway-car brake



naar sans STEPHEN R. 'STIANARD-I 0F PATERSON, NEW JERSEY.

Letters Patent No. 96,051, dated October 19, 1869.

IMPROVE!) RAILWAY-CAR BRAKE.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of thesame.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that L-STEPHEN R. STINARD, ofPaterson, in the county of Passaic, and State of New Jersey, haveinventeda new and useful Improvement in Operating Car-Brake; and I dohereby declare that the following 4 is a full, clear, and -exactdescription thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to makeand use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,forming part ot' this specitication.

'lhis invention relates to improvements in operating brakes for'retarding or'stopping railroad-cars or trains of cars, having particularreference to brakes which are made to act by means of steam orcompressed air,

or other elastic fluid, and which are under the control of the engineer,but at the same time not interfering with the operation of thehand-brake of cach car; and

The invention consists in the combination of de-` vices for taking up orcompensating for the slack or play between the cars of a train, as willbe hereinafter more fully described.

In the accompanying plate of drawings- Figure 1 represents a sectionalside elevation of two cars, showing the mechanism by which I accomplishmy object, the section being through the line :t x ofA iig 2 Figure 2 isa view of the under side of the two cars, giving a plan view of themechanism.

Similar letters ot' reference indicate corresponding parts.

In operating car-brakes from the engine, by means of the application ofsteam, a great diiiiculty has hitherto constantly intervened to renderthis method but little, if at all, superior to the old or hand-brakesystem. i

This difficulty arises from the time and expenditure of power-requiredto take up the slack of -the system of brake 'connecting-rods, which,ina long train of cars, amounts to many feet; that is to say, while itis necessary that there 'should be a certain amount of play between thecars. This involves proportionate increase of length of the rods orchains which connect the brakes of therespective cars, and when theengineer brakes up the locomotive or the whole train,A the several carscrowd upon each other, and thus occasion slack in the aforesaid rods orchains, which must be taken up, and thus much time is lost which in anemergency, or in case of great danger, might be invaluable.

-To obviate this and other difficulties arising from the'same cause isthe object of my invention.

n carryingvit out, I connect two cars, A B, in the ordinary way.

Between thetrucks of each depends a rectangular frame, A.

A stout rod, D', slides longitudinally in arms or brackets of thisframe, 'and to its centre is secured one end of a' chain or cord, af,which passes between friction-rollers, and is couneotedwith the levers cand c', which are all pivoted in the-frame A', as shown in iig.1.

Each car may be provided with a hand-brake, arranged at one or bot-hends thereof', and connected with the steam-brake mechanism at C, bymeans of'a chain, shown in red.

Upon operating the hand-brake standard, the chain c will draw togetherthe free ends of' the levers c c', and thereby apply or operate thebrake-beams J, through the medium of the levers d d and connectingrods ee e e.

It will be seen that the upper ends of levers (l d are' connected to theframe ofthe car byrod's 'i t'. Inthis operation each of therods D servesno other purpose than convenient means 0 attachment for oneend of' eachof the chains a a, whereby to obtain a leverage to actuate the levers cc', or, in other words, were the chains aa attached to the lowerhorizontal bars of the frame A', the effect would be the same.

In the operation of applying thel brakes by steam, these rods are,however, amaiu feat-ure, as will now be made apparent.

On each end of the rods D is -pivoted a short swaybar, E.

One end of this sway-bar is connected by a rod, G, with the lower end ofa levenF, which has its fulcrum in a bracket at the end of the car, andis connected at its upper end with the sliding bumper-head R, by a rod,m'.

The other end of each swaybar is connected'with that on the caiopposite,by means of -a rod, D, as in' fig'. 2. (It will be observed that the rodis placed in a diagonal position.)

Each rod D is jointed at H, to permit the cars to be disconnected, andany suitable device may be employed to suspend'each half of the rodswhen this is r eiiected.

All the cars ot' the train are connected like those shown in thedrawing.

Any 'preferred arrangement of means or devices under the control of theengineer may' be employed in connection with the locomotive for windingup the brakes.

The operation of'V the 'system of sway-bars and rods is as followsi Awinding-cord or chain is provided to connect that one of the rods Dwhich is attached to the car nearest the locomotive, which we willsuppose to be the car A. NVhen the power is applied onthe locomotive,the rod Don the nearest car will be drawn in the direction o1 the lineof motion. This will occasion corresponding movement of the sway-bar atits rear end, and also throw it into a diagonal position, and thusthe-succeeding sway-bars E and rods D and D'vvill be moved in thedirection of the line of motion, and said swaybars also assuming adiagonal position. Meantime the speed of the engine being slackened, thecars crowd upon one another, and the bumper-heads being pressed in, therods 'm operate the levers F F,throw ing their lower ends outward fromthe ends of the car, or toward each other, and thus, through theconnecting-rods G, tending to restore the sway-bars to their position atright angles to the line of motion.

The greater thetension imparted by the Windingmechanism, the more willthe bumper-heads be pressed together, and thus corresponding tensionbeexerted on the sway-bars E androds D, D', and G.

It is evident that by removing the rods G and levers F, and connectingthe rods D directly with the rods D', no or very slight eect could be`produced upon the brakes of any car succeeding that which is coupledwith thev locomotive, since the slack between even two cars would be sorgreat as to exceed the stretch ofthe ropes or chains a, which, by themoveroad-car, substantially as hereinbefore shown' and described, forthe purpose specified. Y,

' 2. In combination with rods D,D, and G,'swaybars E, and levers F, themechanism seen at C, substantially as hereinbefore shown and described.

3. .In combination 'with the elements of the second claim, thebrake-sta' chain, as specified.

The above specification of my invention signed by me, this 9th day ofJune, 1869.

STEPHEN R. STINARD.

Witnesses:

FRANK BLocKLnY, ALEX. F. ROBERTS.

